Sectional barge connection



Dec. 11, 1956 c. P. BESSE 2,773,468

SECTIONAL BARGE CONNECTION Filed D80. 21, 1954 L\\ L A INVENTOR cs1.EST/NE .PA 04 BESSE United States Patent SECTIONAL BARGE CONNECTIONCelestine Paul Besse, New Orleans, La., assignor, b y mesne assignments,to California Research Corporation, San Francisco, Calif., a corporationof Delaware Application December 21, 1954, Serial No. 476,626

1 Claim. (Cl. 114-77) The present invention relates to apparatus forconstructing floatable work platforms as small elements and assemblingwhile said elements are afloat, more particularly to an arrangement forconstructing an enlarged floatable platform from a plurality ofsectionalized floating members, barge hulls, or the like, and has for anobject the provision of an improved method of connecting together aplurality of floating sections by providing a plurality of mating pinsand pin openings in opposed Walls of the hull sections to permit rapidinitial assembly and subsequent disassembly, or assembly afloat.

It has long been appreciated that in the establishment of a workingplatform, such as those required for supporting a drilling structure foran underwater drilling location, that it is desirable from thestandpoint of navigation in narrow waters to be able to construct theworking platform from a plurality of sectional barges, hulls, or thelike.

Heretofore, it has been necessary to construct the interconnectingportions of sectionalized hulls, or floating segments, by accuratelymachining and carefully controlling the location of the pins and pinholes in the mating sections. Ordinarily, this has required the assemblyand disassembly of the hull sections of the completed working platformon dry land or in dry docks. Such practice is, of course, time consumingand expensive due to both the accuracy of machining required and drydock expense.

In accordance with the present invention, an improved method ofassembling a plurality of sections, such as barge hulls, into anenlarged working platform is made possible by providing a plurality ofpin members secured to one section and adapted to pass freely throughgreatly enlarged corresponding openings in an adjacent section, saidopenings being of such dimensions to permit the free passage of themating pins therethrough while both mating sections are afloat, therebypermitting said pair of mating sections to be brought into engagementand roughly aligned. The sections are then temporarily secured togetherindependently of the pin members and pin openings, but with said membersand openings in rough registration. Further, in accordance with theinvention, each of said pins is then brought into engagement moreclosely with the pin openings by a tapered collar member adapted to passfreely over the end of the pin from the inboard side of said pinopening. Said tapered collar member is then secured to said pin by atapered slip member adapted to slidably engage the shank of said pin andfurther slidably engage the outwardly diverging tapered surface formedin said tapered collar member. A cap member threadably secured to theouter end of said pin member is adapted to force said slip member andsaid collar member into firmer sealing engagement with each other andthrough said collar, firmer sealing engagement is made between the pinand the wall surrounding the enlarged pinreceiving opening in the bargeor hull section.

In accordance with the preferred method of assembling a plurality ofhull sections afloat, after each of the collar 2,773,468 Patented Dec.11, 1956 members is assembled initially on its pin in the foregoingmanner, the collar member is welded to the wall of the hull surroundingthe pin-receiving opening. Thus, upon subsequent disassembly of thebarge sections, only the cap nut and the tapered slip member need beremoved from the pin in order for the pin to be withdrawn from thecollar to permit separation of the mating barge sections. In thismanner, each subsequent assembly or disassembly of the barge sectionsthereafter, required in moving the work site from one location toanother, or for barge repairs, may be made readily with the sameaccuracy of fit between the mating hull sections as that achieved in theinitial assembly of the hull sections.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawing which forms an integral part of thepresent specification.

In the drawing:

Fig. l is a schematic representation of a floatable work platformconstructed from a plurality of barge or hull sections and connectedtogether in accordance with the method of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view through an individual connecting pinconstructed in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention, illustrating in detail the manner of assembling mating sidesof the sectional hulls.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the corners of the sectional hullshowing the temporary clamping used in preliminary assembly.

Referring now to the drawing, and particularly to Fig. 1, it will benoted that a plurality of individual barge hull sections 10, eachadapted to be towed or floated to an underwater work site, have beenassembled into a working platform 11. In the present instance, workplatform 11 is illustrated as being adapted to support directly upon itsupper deck a drill derrick 12. Alternatively, at the underwater drillinglocation the work deck may be supported by the hulls 10 at any givenheight thereabove. The required working area, or weight-supporting area,of the enlarged work platform 11 heretofore has required that the entireassembly be preassembled as a unit on dry land or in a dry dock and thenfloated to the work site. For reasons set forth above, it isadvantageous to float the individual sections 10 to the work siteindependently and then assemble them into the Work platform, provided,of course, that the cost of final assembly of said sections intoplatform 11 at the work site, is not greater than the large cost eitherof preassembly or waiting for favorable navigating conditions to floatthe entire structure to the work site. However, whether sections 10 areassembled at the work site, or in protected waters and then floated tothe work location as an assembled unit, it is desirable to be able toreadily assemble the platform while all sections 10 are afloat.

In accordance with the present invention, the economical assembly ofsections 10 into platform 11 while afloat, either at the work site or inprotected waters, is made possible by the provision of a plurality ofpins 14, each of which passes from one section, such as 10A, through theenlarged openings formed in the walls of the adjacent section, such as103. Pins 14, constructed in accordance with thepresent invention,facilitating the afloat assembly of work platform 11, are particularlyshown in Fig. 2. As there illustrated, pin 14, including an elongatedconnecting pin section 15, and an enlarged circular base 16, extendsoutboard from one of the barge hulls, such as 10A, and then passesthrough an enlarged opening in the mating hull 10B. As shown, saidenlarged opening is formed by a first or reinforcing collar member 3 17secured within a larger opening in the wall of mating hull 108.

It will be understood that the dimensions of the barge hull sections maybe large. Accordingly, mating of the pins and openings within less thana few inches tolerance in the barge sections is quite difiicult andexpensive. However, in accordance with the present invention, *the pins15 need only be positioned to align roughly with the openings in thecollars 17. Following arrival at the working site, the opposed bargesections A and 16B are easily brought into mating engagement byintroduction of the several pin members through the correspondingopenings in the collars 17. The barge sections may then betemporarilyclamped or tied together .in any desired manner, such as by cables orclamps, or the like. For example, as shownin Fig. 3, walls 10A and 10Bmay be held together by clamps,:such as .C-clamp 40. After the sides of.the .barge hull 10 are secured together temporarily, atsecond collarmember 19 having a face 20 adapted to engage the inboard face of firstcollar 17 is slipped over the end of pin 15. As shown in Fig. 2, collar19 is provided with an outwardly-diverging tapered surface 21, adaptedto pass freely over the end of pin 15.

In accordance with the present invention, tapered sur face 21 of collar19 is centered relative to the pin 15 by a tapered slip member 23 whichis adapted to engage closely the shank end of pin 15 withthe outertapered surface 24 of slip 23 sliding into engagement with the taperedsurface 21. Thus, the slip member 23 and the collar member 19 areadapted to lock pin member 15 within the openings in first collar 17 andthe side plate of barge hull 1013. Final locking of slip member 23 withtapered collar 19 is accomplished by a cap nut member 26, whichthreadably engages the outer end of pin 15. By the ,application oftorque to cap member 26, it-will be seen that the outersurface slipmember 23 may be firmly forced into engagement with tapered surface 21of collar 19 to center said collar and thereby firmly secure the entireassembly, including the opposed hulls.

Cap member 26 is desirably locked in position by a set screw 28 whichpasses through the center of the 'cap and threads into the outer endof-pin 15.

After initial assembly at a work site in the foregoing manner, themating sections 10A and 1013 may be made more readily assemblable at asucceeding work site by permanently securing face20of tapered collar '19vto the inboard face of first collar 17, as by the bead weld 31,indicated in Fig. 2. Such permanent connection of tapered collar 19 'topin-receiving collar 17 will permit more rapidassembly of the bargehulls 10 aftertheinitial assembly, since, underthese circumstances, thehulls 10A and 10B on initial assembly are fittedso thatthe tolerancespermitted in manufacture are compensated. Thus, only the taperedslip 23and the'cap nut 26 need here- 4 moved and replaced to disassemble orassemble the barge hulls thereafter.

Under certain circumstances, where a large plurality of hulls are all tobe interchangeable at any work site, it is desirable to leave collars 17and 19 as individual elements in the connecting pin assembly.

Various modifications and changes in the structural details of the pinassembly may be made without departing from the scope of the invention,as well as in the method of its assembly. However, all suchmodifications and changes falling within the scope of the appended claimare intended to be included therein.

I claim:

In apparatus for assembling a work structure from a plurality of bargehull sections while said sections are afloat wherein a plurality of pinmembers project outboard from the side of one of said hulls, andpin-receiving openings are formed in corresponding wall portions of anopposed hull, the combination comprising a pin member having a shankportion, a threaded end portion and an enlargedhead portionadapted to,be secured tothe side wall of one ofsaid hulls, a backing ringsurrounding the pin-receiving opening in the opposing hull side wall,said backing ring having an opening substantially larger in diameterthan the shank of said pin to permit free passage of said pin,therethrough and to permit rough registration of said opposed hullswhile said bulls are afloat, a taperedtcollar member of appreciablylarger size than said threaded portion to pass freely over the threadedendof said pin to bring its flange portion into flush engagement withthe inboard face of said backing ring, said collar'mem'oer ,having atapered surface adapted to surround the shank portion of said pin andradially diverging from ,the base of said pin toward the inboard side ofsaid collar member, a slip member having a taperedouter surface oflesser size than the tapered collar member and an inner surface ofgenerally the same size as said shank to closely engage said shank ofsaid pin and adapted to have its tapered surface substantially fullyreceived with in the tapered ,surface of said collar member, and cap.means forthreadablyengaging the outer end of said pin to force saidslip member into seating engagement withinsaid collar member and tocenter said pin within said backing ring and thereby seal said opposedbarge hulls,

together as an enlarged working structure.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNIT ED STATES PATENTS1,412,502 Andrioli Apr. 11, 1922 1,539,348 Botscheller May26, 19251,992,431 Key Feb. 26, 1935 FOREIGN PATENTS 547,377 France Sept. 20,1922

